Pedal Juice, Sanyo's latest Eneloop rechargeable battery solution, offers musicians some relief from a gig bag full of 9V batteries. It could also help cut down annoying AC hum that some wall outlet connections seem to generate, and provide hours of clean, stable DC power for individual pedals, multi-effect units or portable recorders.

Having to constantly source 9V alkaline batteries for stomp boxes is an annoyance that plagues working musicians and bedroom enthusiasts alike. Sometimes it's fairly easy to locate a wall socket to power a favored effects pedal or board, but that could just lead to more problems, unwelcome hum being one of them. With the help of feedback from musicians, Sanyo hopes that its new power solution will solve many such frustrations.

The Pedal Juice 9V power supply for effects pedals contains a 3.7V, 7.35Ah rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery with Eneloop technology that provides direct current to connected devices via two DC outputs, with a maximum output of 2,000mA from each. Fully charging in 3.5 hours, Sanyo claims that it can then provide musicians with 50 hours of continuous use for a single 10mA analog effects pedal, 20 hours for three digital devices, or 27 hours for a 100mA effects board.

Water and shock resistant to JIS IPX3 standards, the 2.5 x 4.7 x 1.7 inch power source can be "recharged hundreds of times, thereby eliminating the waste and inconvenience of disposable 9V alkaline batteries." A traffic light LED system instantly informs the user of the device's remaining power - once you hit the red zone, you have under 30 per cent charge left. Additionally, no AC ground loops means a hum-free clean signal.

The Pedal Juice (or Eneloop KBC-9V3U to use its technical name) will be available very shortly for a list price of US$199.99.

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This is genious, as a musician I know the tedious need for 9v batteries, or expensive and usually heavy power rigs/distributors for pedals. One fault, ony two outputs? That could be a drawback as a lot of guitarists use a sequence of 4 effects boxes....

marshall91t 1st July, 2010 @ 02:27 am PDT

@ marshall91t - guess you're supposed to buy two of them. Or four rechargeable 9V bats